Gajar ka Halwa

'Tis winter, and winter brings with it an amazing array of winter vegetables. Peas, radishes, turnip, cauliflower, mustard leaves and my favorite, the red carrot. How can we be in the season of red carrots and not make the heartwarming Gajar ka Halwa.

Here's my mom's recipie for Gajar ka Halwa. This recipe is not one that can be made in a jiffy. So plan well ahead in time. It is one of the easiest desserts to make and takes very little effort.


Ingredients (Serves 8)
Red Carrot - 1 kg
Milk - 1 1/2 ltr
Sugar - 1 cup/200 gm
Ghee (clarified butter)- 3 tbsp
Almonds - 25
Elaichi (green cardamom)  10 pods (powdered)
2 cups hot water for soaking the almonds

Prepartion time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 150 mins

Method

• Peel, wash and grate the carrots.
• Soak the almonds in the hot water for two hours. Then peel the skin off and chop them up into fine juliennes.
• Take a non stick pan, add the ghee and grated carrots. Let the carrot sweat and lose its water. You know this is done when you can no longer see water at the bottom of the pan. The carrot would have reduced to 2/3rd its original volume by now.
• Add the milk, half a liter at a time. After adding each half liter, mix the carrot and milk and then add the next half litre
• When all the milk is added, let it come to a boil and reduce the flame.

• Keep cooking on low flame to let the milk reduce. Stir occasionally to ensure the halwa does not stick to the bottom of the pan (Stir once every 15-20 mins)
• When milk has reduced to 1/4th its original volume, add the almond juliennes
• Stir more frequently now to prevent the halwa from burning
• When the milk has reduced completely -(there are no more droplets of milk at the bottom of the pan), add the sugar
• The halwa will become a little wet again, keep cooking to let the water evaporate. Stir occasionally
• When water has completely evaporated, add the elaichi powder.

Variations

You can add 3/4 liter milk and 250 gm khoya instead of 1 1/2 liter milk. Add the khoya when the milk has evaporated.

If you have left over milk/khoya sweets, these can be added also in addition to/instead of the khoya.

Tips

More the milk, better the gajar ka halwa. Don't be shy to add more milk.

Be patient when letting the milk evaporate. It takes a good 2 hours.

Adjust sugar as per your taste. 200 gm is ideal for me and my family's palette.

What is the Stone Pot

What is it? Am i getting Stoned on a lot of Pot or do I need to pass a stone by sitting on a Pot!

The stone pot is just that. A Stone Pot. It is a stone vessel that has passed on from generation to generation. It is a vessel that has seen many lifetimes and still lives, for us to imagine its tale.

What has my stone pot seen? Birth.Death.Cheers.Tears of all those beautiful and talented women who have used it over the generations. I am lucky this vessel has passed down to me. We don't get to see such vessels in kitchens these days. It was just sitting there gathering dust in a cupboard at my Aunt's home. The minute I laid eyes on it, I knew I wanted it. She very generously gave it to me too. I very carefully transported it from Mumbai to Bangalore where it now occupies a great place of pride in my modest Kitchen.

Not only does food made in it taste great, it is also an instant ice breaker, a topic of conversation for first time visitors, a trip down memory lane for the elders and a thing of envy for other kitchen enthusiasts like me.

The stone pot represents everything I want this blog to represent. An amalgamation of my culinary inheritance. Start of a conversation with other food fanatics. The first step to my food dream.